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Registered Member #3781
Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701
So while my Physics class was watching Nova, my friend and I were imagining up a device that would enable the average person to "see" sound. Such as how you can see IR with a camera. Unless someone here knows of a device that can see sound waves, we dreamed up an idea:
It would be an Iphone app. where you point the camera on your phone at something that was making noise, I.E. a person, the person would show up on the screen but would show up with a varied amount of distortion according to the varying degree of sound I.E. a whisper would = little distortion while a yell = a lot of distortion of the image. There would also be a gain programmed in (using the volume control keys?) so you can negate "white noise." I have several friends that are really good at programming, so would this be possible?
This would probably not have any practical application, it's just for fun! Feel free to add any ideas.
Registered Member #540
Joined: Mon Feb 19 2007, 07:49PM
Location: MIT
Posts: 969
You'd need an "eye" for the sound while the mic on a iPhone is like a single light sensitive cell. You'd need a way to project the sound "image" onto a series of detectors and then use that information. I think it's completely possible but the eye would be quite large due to the wavelength of the sound.
Registered Member #33
Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 01:31PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 971
Schlieren photography lets you see the flow of fluids and gases, so it can be used to see pressure waves. I think it only works on really loud sounds like gunshots though. Synthetic schlieren could maybe be implemented on an iPhone if the camera is good enough, though you would need an illuminated target pattern behind the object. And it would still only be able to image strong pressure waves. And it would only work if the camera was completely still. It would be very interesting though.
Registered Member #3766
Joined: Sun Mar 20 2011, 05:39AM
Location:
Posts: 624
I don't know anything about programming, but for what it's worth, you can see sound with a high speed high sensitivity camera and the proper lighting/background. Different method, but still cool.
Also FWIW, if you develop a way to see x-rays easily, you can probably sell a dozen on here.
I would buy one so I can see what's happening with a fusor.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, can I remind you of the flaps on either side of your head that already allow you to "see" sound better than any iPhone app ever could.
As pointed out, the iPhone only has one mic so it can't tell what direction the sound is coming from. And even if it had several, computer algorithms are nowhere near as good at source location in reverberant surroundings as your own ears, which have been tuned by natural selection to detect prowling bears, sabre toothed tigers and so on.
It would be easy to make an app that just distorted the image of whatever the camera was pointed at, according to the noise level picked up by the mic. But distorting each object in the image according to the amount of sound coming from it is beyond computer science at present.
Registered Member #27
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058
Locating sound sources with several miucrophones is not very unusual. Windows support microphone arrays for detecting the position of the loudest sound sorce then surpressing sound from other sources. The brain can do magic using only two sensors, for most programs to work you need at least one microphone for each sound source.
Useful terms to seach for: Microphone array Beamforming Acoustic camera
Registered Member #3781
Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701
Steve McConner wrote ...
At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, can I remind you of the flaps on either side of your head that already allow you to "see" sound better than any iPhone app ever could.
As pointed out, the iPhone only has one mic so it can't tell what direction the sound is coming from. And even if it had several, computer algorithms are nowhere near as good at source location in reverberant surroundings as your own ears, which have been tuned by natural selection to detect prowling bears, sabre toothed tigers and so on.
It would be easy to make an app that just distorted the image of whatever the camera was pointed at, according to the noise level picked up by the mic. But distorting each object in the image according to the amount of sound coming from it is beyond computer science at present.
Yeah I know haha, but I think it would still be pretty cool to see it on a screen.
I was thinking that the app would just distort whatever image it was pointing at, no need for it to be super complicated with trying to figure out what sound came from where. This is where the adjustable gain comes in, to get rid of most of the unwanted noise in the background. Of course if someone starts talking loudly behind the Iphone then the gain would not be any help. On another note, my video camera has a "zoom microphone" that, when enabled, will only pick up sound that the video camera is zooming in on. I wonder if something like that would work for the Iphone?
stop4stuff wrote ...
Have a google for Rubens Tube - easily constructed, but may not be 'school safe'
Rubens Tubes are pretty cool, but also quite large and sightly dangerous. I'm looking for something that can just be downloaded for cheap/free that will basically do the same thing.
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Look at the sound!
